question archive 1)Compare and contrast the different categories of drug-related confidential informants

1)Compare and contrast the different categories of drug-related confidential informants

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1)Compare and contrast the different categories of drug-related confidential informants. If you were a detective in the drug unit; what type of informant would you want to work with and why?

2)How are clandestine drug laboratory operations identified? Who would be involved in responding to a call involving an illegal crime labatory?

3)When and how may a witness use notes on the witness stand?

4)Discuss the exceptions to the hearsay rule of confessions, admissions, spontaneous and excited utterance, dying declaration and former testimony.

5)What characteristics does a good witness need to have? What factors affect the credibility of the law enforcement officer as a witness? What about appearance and demeanor?

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  1. As a confidential informant to the police or other investigators, one risks the danger of being caught by the people you are reporting. As a result, they choose to remain confidential except on exceptional cases which demand their identities to be revealed. There are various categories of informants that include a member of the community, a member of a criminal gang, and a victim of a crime. Informants have been praised for having contributed to expeditious investigations that would have taken years for investigators to figure them out without the informants. What category one chooses to rely on is a personal decision based on circumstances of the case.
  2. Clandestine laboratories have become a common feature over the past years. The major challenge is that the laboratories make illegal and dangerous drugs within our neighborhoods without suspicions. They pose danger to both human health and the environment. Though there have been ways of identifying such laboratories like unusual odors and very tight security, the challenge is getting the right team of responders considering the danger of the hazardous materials used.
  3. Witnesses are supposed to give a full account of a case based on their memory. However, in very rare circumstances, witnesses are allowed to use notes while on stand with permission of the Court so as to refresh their memory. The notes have to be documents in the file.
  4. Hearsay evidence is a testimony given in Court by someone other than the one who made it originally. As a general rule, hearsay evidence is not admissible as evidence. However, this general rule has exceptions, meaning that in certain instances, hearsay evidence is admissible. These instances include; confessions and admissions, it is assumed that a person would not utter or make a statement against their own interests, meaning that the statement must be true. Spontaneous and excited utterance is an exception to hearsay rule, meaning that it is admissible in order to prove the truth of the statement itself. It is is the belief that a statement made under the stress or excitement is likely to be trustworthy and is not likely to be a premeditated lie. For a dying declaration, it is admissible in Court as an exception to the hearsay rule as long as the declaration is based on the actual knowledge of the declarer. The exception of former testimony allows a witness' former testimony in one proceeding on same issue and same parties to be admissible in a second proceeding as long as; there is an opportunity to cross examine the testimony since it was given on first hand basis in the first proceeding; and that the declarer is not available to testify during the second proceeding.
  5. Witnesses can make or ruin a case. A good witness is a reliable witness who is honest, trustworthy, communicates effectively, and is confident. Police officers' credibility has never been an issue until recently when their characters were put under scrutiny and some were found to have lied on stand before. Appearance and demeanor of a witness can create a good or bad impression with the jury, and how one looks or behaves can tell if they are rude and hostile witnesses or reliable and honest ones.